Incident
by WishingOnMyStar
Summary: Alex's life changed one day after school. Enjoy. I originally intended this to be a secret chap for reviewers of my other fic, Shadow, but I don't know when the next chapter will be...


**Incident**

**By: Wish**

**Disclaimer: I do not own X-men, so don't yell at me for copyright infringement.**

I was just staying after school. I did that sometimes, especially when extra credit was involved. I wasn't that great a student, not like my sister anyways. Extra credit was how I kept my grades afloat sometimes. Today wasn't much different than the other times. I did the work after school, then grabbed my things and walked out the front of the school. It was a public middle school in San Francisco, but we still wore uniforms. It felt hot out, for the middle of winter. I had to take off my uniform jacket. Now that I look back, I guess that could've been the first sign something was wrong. Everyone else around me wore their coats zippered up, yet there _I_ stood, wearing just a white suit shirt, tie and khaki pants.

But I thought nothing of it. Why would I? It didn't mean anything to me then. I'm not sure it means anything to me now. But I'm getting distracted. My teachers say I do that a lot.

The bigger, older boys were waiting outside the school. Not necessarily for_ me,_ just for something to do. Something to entertain themselves. I might as well have been a boring rerun on television.

"Look at the little sevey!" called one of the boys. He leaned up against the building face. His buddies, all somewhat scattered, but still together in front of the school, laughed, converging on me. I didn't even know half of them, just the one who'd called me a "sevey", Rick McNally. He was a big, bad, eight-grade football player and the boys with him were his "cronies", for lack of a better word. They were too stupid to think for themselves. But you didn't need to think for yourself to pound a guy into pulp.

"What's the sevey doing here aw awone?" taunted another boy. I didn't know his name, but I'd seen him before.

"Probably playing dress up with all the other little dorks!" The cronies laughed at Rick's "joke". I kept on walking in an attempt to get away before they closed in their circle. Rick noticed and cut off my exit.

"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded. "You're just in time for my favorite game! Pinball." He pushed me back, hard. I somehow managed to drop my backpack, and then stumble over it. I fell into Rick's buddies behind me, who shoved my again, even harder. I stumbled around and around and around, never on balance for more than half a second. Each shove became harder, until Rick threw the first punch, right to my face.

I dropped, clutching my right eye, to laughter. The lackeys dragged me up just so Rick could punch me again. In the face, the gut, anywhere he could find. When I fell again, he didn't let them pick me up.

"C'mon shithead," Rick growled, jamming his foot into my ribs. "C'mon wuss, get up. C'mon, play with us dick-face!" Each time I didn't get up, he kicked harder. I bit my lip and curled up into a ball, a sort of last defense.

"My dog's shit is worth more than you," Rick spat, disgusted. "You're not even worth the effort to fart you out."

I was angry. I was worth so much more than these jerks. I was better than them, yet here I was, on the ground, at _their_ feet. I had to do something. Anger burned in my cheeks.

Hands grabbed my arms.

"Leave me alone!" I shouted. I grabbed Rick's arms, squeezing as hard as I could. He screamed.

"Leggo, Leggo!" he whined between cries. "Lemme go!"

"Don't ever come near my again," I ordered.

"Let him go, you're hurting him!" one of the braver of the other boys said. I looked down now at my hands. They were cherry-red and the fabric of Rick's shirt around them was charred. I let go and Rick howled, clutching his arm back. I saw two, black handprints on his melted, bleeding skin; my handprints.

He ran; his crew right after him. I would've chased after them, but I was in shock. I looked at my hands, still cherry-red, like extremely hot metal.

"What have I done?" I whispered. "What is this?"

My mind frantically searched for an answer and came up with something it'd seen before, a body with no head. Meg. Something Med could do.

"Meg will know what to do," I reassured myself aloud. I snatched up my backpack and ran, not stopping until I was safely at home. Meg would know what this was. After all, she was the one who could turn invisible.


End file.
